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Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
351–360 of 506 posts
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#352Just put it in a docker container.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "The poster says "Their business model (in my case) seems to be to take money from companies to spy on their employees/contractors, and then they sell the employees/contractors private information to "targeted advertising". > Do you have any evidence for this?? I've just been involved in selecting Drata as a vendor for SOC2 compliance planning for our company. If this is true it's a huge deal and totally against my…
That’s not how burden of proof works. OP made a claim that Drata collects private employee info and resells it. That’s a large claim. It’s on OP to justify that position, not on the parent to rebut the opposite.
Burden of proof doesn't really matter. If this company wants people to trust its software "agents", they should be making every effort to convince them. Free software goes a long way.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#354Install it on a spare laptop.
I recently did something similar. The ironic thing is that I work for a privacy-focused startup where such a practice is in total opposition to personal values held dearly by most people who work there. They claimed (and I assume that it's the truth) that this requirement was forced on them by the insurance industry. Apparently insurers are at the moment super-focused on cybersecurity threats and it's simply impossib…
I can easily engineer myself out of this crap. But that feels like a much worse solution than just dropping out.
I have two qualities that makes customers willing to pay a premium. I am very good at what I do. I am honest. I don't want to compromise my integrity.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#355You have two options: (1) quit or (2) "renegotiate the relationship", as the saying goes. Specifically, it's perfectly reasonable for you to say "OK -- if you're willing to provide me with a dedicated laptop". They can say no of course, but so can you. Or you can request a rate increase (which they would probably say no to, if they won't provide you with a laptop). Either way, those are you choices. Yes it sucks to a…
No, "quitting" is rarely the right option - you do not need to proactively respond to the situation they created! If you're willing to no longer work there over this (as you should be), then that is a pretty strong BATNA. You soft refuse and give them alternative options that are acceptable to you (perhaps supplying their own equipment to run the spyware, a higher rate so you can procure your own dedicated equipment, etc), etc. Let them be the ones to terminate the relationship.
The same goes for other bullshit sprung on you out of the blue - noncompetes, piss testing, etc. There's a decent chance that if you just passively stonewall, they will eventually give up.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#356If you are a freelancer then your contract should allow you to do work for others. In which case, your response to this client has to be "Sorry, but my business laptop potentially has data from other clients on it. I can't let you install this monitoring agent without violating my contractual confidentially agreement with those other clients. I always maintain client confidentiality and will do the same for you. If y…
I think this is the correct advice, but keep in mind that procuring the laptop might be a difficult thing for them to do bureaucratically. On the other hand, you renting a laptop and charging them for it, would be pretty simple, presumably your contract covers expenses and all you'd need is an OK from the manager. I worked for a big company that had various spyware thingies installed on all the company laptops, but t…
> I think this is the correct advice, but keep in mind that procuring the laptop might be a difficult thing for them to do bureaucratically
That's not OP's problem.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#357Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you are a freelancer then your contract should allow you to do work for others Not only that, in some EU countries it's even illegal for a freelancer to work for 1x customer.
> Not only that, in some EU countries it's even illegal for a freelancer to work for 1x customer. How does that work? Is it more "exclusively for one customer" similar to the how the IRS rules work?
Uk has this law too. If you freelance to just one company you’ll be classed as an employee of that company instead of self employed.
The reason is companies were abusing self employment laws by only recruiting freelancers even for full time roles so they didn’t have to provide sick pay/parental leave/holidays/pensions/etc.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#358Earlier quoted context omitted.
> "The poster says "Their business model (in my case) seems to be to take money from companies to spy on their employees/contractors, and then they sell the employees/contractors private information to "targeted advertising". > Do you have any evidence for this?? I've just been involved in selecting Drata as a vendor for SOC2 compliance planning for our company. If this is true it's a huge deal and totally against my…
That’s not how burden of proof works. OP made a claim that Drata collects private employee info and resells it. That’s a large claim. It’s on OP to justify that position, not on the parent to rebut the opposite.
IIUC, "Burden of proof" (as a concept) is meaningful in fora where there are agreed-upon standards of evidence. E.g., a courtroom or a formal debate.
My impression is that HN conversations are less regulated. Someone can make a claim, and each reader can decide how much merit it deserves, and if/how to discuss it further.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#359Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Drata is a vendor that helps a company navigate your SOC2 compliance process, by organizing all the controls and helping you gather evidence that you have done so. For instance, they'll connect with Github and make sure everyone with access to your repos is a company employee. In other words, Drata is a CYAaaS. > The Drata agent is a pretty innocuous thing. It checks you have done things like turn on disk encryptio…
> Guessing it is privileged and self-updating. And closed source, of course. Must be totally free of bugs too, like all software.
At least it's using some OSS, like osquery, c.f. https://cdn.drata.com/agent/osquery/queries.json>, so you can easily see quite a bit of what it's going to gather.
Re: Ask HN: My client want an agent on my laptop. Is this the new normal?
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's a five port 802.1Q VLAN switch for $39.99 + tax: https://www.newegg.com/netgear-gs105e/p/N82E16833122598
Interesting though my network is powerline so id need one in front of every POE switch (and that's assuming the powerline devices would pass the Vlan tags) And id need a VDSL Router that supported Vlans as well so that's 4 switch's plus a router.
Edit I meant switch in front of each powerline adaptor